<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Home By Another Way by iwasanartist</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22627555">Home By Another Way</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist'>iwasanartist</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Gen, Missing Scene, Wanda visions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:16:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22627555</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony finds out what Steve saw when Wanda whammied The Avengers</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve Rogers &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Chocolate Box - Round 5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Home By Another Way</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fernstrike/gifts">Fernstrike</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“We don’t know what the Maximoff kid showed him.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. She pulled us apart like cotton candy.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Seems like you walked away all right.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Is that a problem?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t trust a guy without a dark side.”</em>
</p><p>- Steve &amp; Tony, Avengers: Age of Ultron</p><hr/><p>It was early morning on the Barton farm. Only a few hours until they’d all pile back onto the jet and take a stand against Ultron. Tony and Steve got stuck sharing a room, crammed onto a queen murphy bed, surrounded by toys with the one saving grace — an Iron Man nightlight -- burning dimly in a corner. </p><p>Except, Tony wasn’t getting much sleep. His back was pressed into Steve’s and he could feel every motion as Steve’s shoulder blades tensed or his knee twitched along with whatever robot, Hydra agent or Nazi he was fighting in his dreams. He mumbled something and Tony had just about had enough.</p><p>“You’re really annoying right now,” he said just loudly enough that he thought it should have woken Steve up. But all he got for his effort was a full-body tense that threatened to push him out of bed. “Seriously?” Tony tapped his heel against Steve’s and when that got no reaction, he laid the flat of his foot against Steve’s calf and shoved.</p><p>Steve woke with a jolt, half rolling and half falling out of bed, and scrambling to a corner of the room gasping for air.</p><p>“Whoa, you okay?” Tony said, tossing the blankets aside and setting his feet down on the floor. “What’s happening?” Steve ignored him, patting at the pockets of his sweatpants then banging his hands into the bookshelves before his eyes darted around the room, looking for something as he struggled to breathe. It was almost like he didn’t know where he was.</p><p>Or when he was.</p><p>“Okay,” Tony said more to himself than anyone else. “Okay.” He lowered himself to the floor in a crouch. “Steve, it’s okay. You took a little ice bath and woke up in the 21st century.” Steve squeezed his eyes shut. One fist was clenched at his chest, the other clutched at an ear as he drew his knees close to his body. “You don’t have asthma anymore. You’re not 5-foot-nothing and 100 pounds soaking wet.” Tony crept closer. “You are Captain America, and you’re six-feet and 200-some pounds of muscle on top of muscle, all right?” Steve let out a pained yelp, almost a whimper. <br/> <br/>“Hey,” Tony reached out to lay a hand on Steve’s shoulder, but his fingers had barely touched fabric before Steve moved whip-fast, knocking his hand away and capturing his wrist. Steve hadn’t even looked at him — his gaze somewhere in the distance. Tony winced as his grip increased. “Holding on a little tight there, Cap.” Steve’s knuckles cracked and Tony was sure he could feel his bones constricting. “Ow, come on. Let me go.” He tried to jerk away, but Steve only held tighter. It wasn’t until Tony pinched at the skin of his forearm and called Steve’s name again that he relaxed, fingers loosening, breath coming in quick bursts. “You okay?”</p><p>“Get away from me,” Steve growled. Tony frowned and jerked his arm away from Steve.</p><p>“Yeah, no problem.” His voice came out bitter and harsh as returned to the bed and sat at its edge, rubbing at the spot Steve had held in his vise-like grip. “What the fuck was that, Rogers?”</p><p>“What?” Steve looked up and around like he was seeing the room for the first time. “I don’t…Tony?”</p><p>“Yeah, AKA the guy whose wrist you almost shattered.”</p><p>Steve looked at Tony in shock then down at his hands. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>Tony waited for a moment, expecting an explanation or an apology that didn’t sound quite so robotic, but when none came, his lip curled slightly.</p><p>“Right, fine,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I’m going to that beat-ass couch downstairs. Maybe the barn. I’ll probably find an animal or two that’s a little more friendly.” He was halfway to his feet when Steve spoke.</p><p>“Wait, no, don’t. You stay. I’ll go. I need some air, anyway.” He was on his feet and to the door before Tony could object to having his storm out stolen. “I am sorry, Stark,” he said before disappearing into the dark hallway.</p><p>Tony listened as Steve walked away. The sound of skittering plastic and a just barely muttered “Ow” reached his ears and Tony couldn’t help but snort as he leaned back against the bed’s headboard.  <em>Stepped on LEGO. Serves you right.</em> But the more he sat there, the less funny anything seemed. He tried to get back to sleep. His heart had stopped racing at Steve’s panic but his wrist still throbbed from his whatever that was, and the light from the night light was suddenly blindingly bright. With a huff, he tossed the blankets aside and made his way downstairs to the kitchen. </p><p>The freezer was fully stocked and Tony stared into its depths for a moment before pulling out a bag of frozen peas. He wrapped a dish towel once around his wrist, molded the bag to his arm and secured it with a finishing wrap and tuck. It wasn’t bad, and he was admiring his handiwork when he heard through an open window the unmistakable sound of an ax hitting wood.</p><p>For a minute, Tony just watched Steve, lost in the rhythm of his swings and the sharp exhale as each blow landed. He split log after log, each one coming and going a little faster than the one before it. The last one went with a grunt and Steve let the ax sit in the tree trunk, turning away and breathing heavily for a moment before retrieving it, setting up another log and swinging again.</p><p>Part of Tony wanted to go back to bed, but he knew if he did, he’d never get any sleep anyway. So instead he filled two glasses with ice and water, left his frozen peas-wrap in the kitchen sink and stepped outside.</p><p>“You know, at this rate, Clint and the missus will have enough firewood to last the next two winters.” He held out a glass and watched as Steve took a long drink before setting it down on the stump.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>“Don’t mention it.”</p><p>Steve nodded his head and stepped over to the fence, leaning on the top rail and gazing out into the field barely illuminated by the light from the shed. “Is your wrist okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. It’ll be fine,” Tony said. “No need to bench me, coach.” Tony wasn’t sure, but he thought he could see the barest of smiles tug at Steve’s lips.</p><p>“That’s good. I really am sorry.”</p><p>“I know.” Tony waited for Steve to say anything. To do anything. But relieved from his self-imposed wood chopping duties, all he did was continue staring into the distance. “So what was that back there?” Tony finally asked.</p><p>Steve bowed his head and rubbed at the back of his neck.</p><p>“A dream. From when I was kid. Before the serum. I guess it took my head a little longer to wake up than my body.” He fell silent again, eyes trained on his thumb now as he picked at a splinter.</p><p>“That’s it?” Tony said. “ ‘A dream’?”</p><p>“What else do you want from me?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Tony said, louder than intended before trailing off. “Nothing, I guess.” He set the second glass of water down on a fence post with a thud and turned back toward the house. He’d only made it a few steps before Steve spoke.</p><p>“You want to know what I saw?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“The Maximoff girl. Do you want to know what she showed me?”</p><p>Tony returned to Steve’s side and nodded.</p><p>“She showed me the end.”</p><p>“Of?”</p><p>“The fight. The war. And do you know what it looked like?”</p><p>
  <em>A staircase to cosmic hell littered with dead Avengers?</em>
</p><p>Tony kept silent.</p><p>“Nothing. Just an empty room. You want to fight so we can end the war and go home, and that’s great, Tony. It’s admirable. Noble, even. It’s what a hero wants.” Steve closed his eyes as his hands curled around the fence railing until the wood creaked. “But I don’t <em>have</em> a home to go back to. My home is a bloodstained relic of history. I <em>can’t</em> go back.” </p><p>“Come on, Cap,” Tony started, but it was  a sentence he didn’t know how to finish and Steve didn’t give him time to finish it anyway.</p><p>“God, maybe Ultron was right,” Steve continued. “I’ve been fighting my whole life. Even before the serum, back when I could never win, I still fought. For all the things I didn’t have, at least I had that and... And after the serum, I had so much, for a while,” Steve bowed his head before speaking again. “Look at us. You want to end the bloody, awful mess, and I’m over here asking ‘but what happens to me then, when the war’s over and there’s nothing left and nowhere to go?’” Steve let out a bitter laugh as his hands eased off the fence rail. “I’d let the world keep burning just to have something to do. Is that side dark enough for you?”</p><p>“No you wouldn’t,” Tony said. </p><p>Steve snorted and shook his head.</p><p>“I mean it; I think your DNA would literally revolt. And besides…” Tony paused.  If he had less self control, his hand would be hovering in the air wavering between landing on Steve’s forearm or his shoulder or snaking around his back. As it was he just stood there, frozen.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You have a home, Steve. I mean, nobody’s going name the Avengers Family of the Year, and we’re certainly not winning any Good Housekeeping awards but…you have a home. With us.”</p><p>Steve looked down at his hands before turning his head sidewise to glance at Tony. “I think that might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”</p><p>“Don’t tell anyone. Got a rep to uphold.”</p><p>“Oh, of course,” Steve said with a smile. “Wouldn’t dream of polishing up your reputation.”</p><p>Tony grinned and dropped his hand down on Steve’s shoulder, giving a squeeze as he steered him away from the fence. The sun was just starting to peek through the branches of distant trees.</p><p>“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get a last little bit of beauty rest before we all go off and save the day.”</p><p>“Awfully optimistic of you.”</p><p>“Like I said, don’t tell anyone.”</p><hr/><p>
  <em>“Maybe I should take a page out of Barton’s book. Build Pepper a farm. Hope nothing blows it up.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The simple life.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You’ll get there one day.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t know. Family. Stability. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You all right?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m home.”</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>